Thought for the Week 2021 – Lent 5

Isaiah 40: 1 - 8

¹ Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

³ A voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
⁵ And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

⁶ A voice says, ‘Cry out.’
    And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’

‘All people are like grass,
    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
⁷ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures for ever.’

 

Lent 5 – Prepare the Way for the Lord

This is the fifth week of Lent, and we are continuing to examine ourselves in the light of the life, death and resurrection of our Saviour. This week we are looking at the opening verses of Isaiah 40, a well-known portion of Scripture, which includes a verse quoted in the New Testament as a prophecy about John the Baptist.

This part of the Book of Isaiah looks ahead to the exile of the Jews to Babylon, as well as the return from exile seventy years later. And it begins in verses 1 and 2 with reassurance for the future: ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’ This reminds us that the Holy Spirit is called the comforter, as one of many translations of the Greek word paraklete. It appears, for instance, in John 14: 26, in the King James Version. Other translations use the word ‘helper’ or ‘advocate’. But there is something wonderfully reassuring about being told that the Holy Spirit is the comforter. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us when life is difficult, and he brings comfort instead of despair; peace instead of anxiety. Over the last twelve months we have needed the comfort of the Holy Spirit more than ever – the one who brings peace and hope to our hearts in troubled times.

In these opening words of Isaiah 40 we are reading of the comfort that the Holy Spirit will bring to the people of Jerusalem. They will face harsh exile, but at the end of it they will return to the Promised Land. ‘Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,’ it says. When a child is sad or hurt and a parent comes alongside, he or she brings comfort, and speaks tenderly to the child. This is what God does for his people – he is the comforter and speaks tenderly.

As I said, verse 3 is quoted in the New Testament by John the Baptist as a prophecy about himself. Today we are in a different situation to that of John the Baptist. However, we have a job to do and a role to play in doing the same thing – preparing the way for the Lord. It is for us to make a straight highway for God. In other words, you and I (and the whole church) are called to go into all the world and make disciples. We have met Jesus – so now we need to introduce him to other people. In Romans 10: 14 Paul writes, ‘How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?’ If we are going to go into the world and speak of Jesus, introducing him to people, we are, in effect, ‘preparing the way for the Lord.’

And in the following verse in Romans, Paul continues, ‘And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ Do you have beautiful feet? Well, whatever the state of your toenails or bunions, you have beautiful feet if you are bringing the good news of Jesus! If you are going into the world to make disciples, preparing the way for the Lord, straight in the desert a highway for our God, then you have the most beautiful feet!

Wherever we go and whatever we do, and whoever we talk to, we have a role to play in God’s Kingdom. We are the ones with beautiful feet, bringing Good News, as we introduce people to Jesus. We are preparing the way of the Lord, and making the path straight for people to meet him.  What can you do this week? Who will you meet, and what will you do to tell those people that there is Good News?

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I thank you for your faithfulness, your love, and for coming to this world to live for us, die for us and rise again. Thank you for the Comforter, the Holy Spirit – please may he strengthen and help me as I set about preparing the way for the Lord, making straight in the desert a highway for our God: every single day! Amen.